noteasytobepink | Wheelsy AU ~ Tire changing

"The villians are blue where you come from? Well that's handy."

He was being a brat, yes.

"Only some of them, and I'd hate to get them confused with my teammate TJ, who is a nice, dark blue and furry." Mild, milllld reply!

"Ah. So I guess it ain't so easy then. Oh well."

He shrugged, glanced behind him to make sure it was clear, then flopped out onto his back.

"Y'know, maybe we shoulda just planned a trip like this in the first place. Who needs the city?"

"Weel, if it was easy everyone would do it." She waved a hand airily. "The challenge keeps out the riffraff."

Oooo, grass. "Creeks are inherently more interesting than cities, though a bar with a pool table and the possibility of a bar fight is appealing too."

"True. Guess that makes you an' your friends special for bein' heroes." He glanced over at her to give her a smile, then stared up at the sky again.

"Here I thought I was the only one who felt that way. I dunno, was just never drawn to city life. I mean, it's fun once in awhile, but who'd want that all the time when they could have somethin' like this?"

Clear skies, fresh grass and a babbling creek, that was much better than smog, trash and traffic.

He did give her a sideways look on the fighting, though.

"I wasn't goin' into Columbia t'look for trouble, y'know."

"Well...I'd say eccentric more than special I think." She twirled her stick in the bank mud some more then whipped it almost sword like in front of her. "Special implies, well, I believe Morph called it the 'shortbus'?" Not that she'd ever seen one but!

Mmmm, countyryside. "Always be prepared for a fight when you go to a bar. To do otherwise is foolish, besides, a fight can be a great stress reliever!"

He cracks up at the short bus comment.

"Okay, I guess in this case eccentric is better'n special."

Resting his hands behind his head, he shakes it.

"The beer is the stress reliever. Fightin' is just a good way t'get your nose busted an' spend a night in lock up."

"Eccentric and badass, naturally." Because she had her pride to maintain! Really she did!

"Ah, but think on it Bill. Beer lowers inhibitions and eases muscles tension, that means when temper get short and the fighting starts, blows don't cause as much damage. You bruise less with some alcohol in you. Plus you have a focus for honest anger and adrenaline instead of the nebulous, gut churning anger you can't find a target for."

"Naturally," he agreed.

Watching a cloud float by,he listened to her argument.

"I happen t'be a happy drunk in bar situations,an' ain't got any 'gut churnin' anger' to channel. D'you?"

"I didn't say you'd be starting a fight Bill!" Nope, he was just the sort who'd try to help when it started getting out of hand! "And of course you do. Your jaw's been going tight anytime anyone in town looks at you like they might be worried or sad for you, you had to get out of town, and the object of the initial anger isn't anywhere near here and you aren't the type to take it out on her anyway." Which was why Clarice had been scathing to Starla really.

"Also? That one looks like a frog. With wings." Pointing!

"I'm not angry, I'm... " he thought about it and settled for, "I'm bugged. I don't need people feelin' sorry for me all the time. Besides, it ain't like we were ever together an' she dumped me."

People were just reacting like that was happened.

Bringing his hands down to his sides, he frowned.

"An' I ain't mad at her. I'm hurt," and that was the first time he'd admitted as much, "I figure I deserved at least a chance, but she didn't feel it, how can I hold that against her?"

Looking up at the cloud he tilted his head and nodded.

"Yeah. I was thinkin' more like a turtle in a Stetson."

"It won't be all the time," she shrugged. "Everything fades and you'll have the flocking, happy hordes again soon I bet. In fact your social calendar will probably be stuffed full of barbeques, bake nights, and dinners."

As for the rest though..."And yeah, you can. You're human Bill, and emotion doesn't have a damn thing to do with what you say or think should be right." He could hold that against her, and probably should with all honesty. "It's alright to feel hurt though. You thought you held a different role in her life than she did and that would make anyone hurt."

Huh. Stetson. She wiggled around on the ground until she could get a better angle on the cloud then squinted. "Nope, maybe a goldfish with a crown?"

"I hope the barbecues and such start happenin' soon, can't take much more of the pity."

He dropped his eyes from the sky, and was quiet as he mulled over her words.

"It's my fault, for never sayin' anything to her. But... "

He hesitated, not sure if he really wanted to put a voice to this one thought.

"I just-- I wonder how it is she didn't know. Everyone else did. I've always been guilty of wearin' my heart out on my sleeve."

You'd think one of those times she would have seen it when it was hanging there.

Shaking his head, he looked back up and studied the cloud.

"Its a dinosaur in earmuffs."

"Well, maybe we can jump started the barbeque bit by having one of our own? Kind of an announcement of willingness? I don't know the social customs thing." Maybe it would work? And they could totally cook. How hard could grilling be?

"I am willing to bet she noticed Bill." Just saying. "Way I'm seeing things she accepted that devotion as her right, much like a medieval lady would from a knight. The princess doesn't marry knights, she smiles and accepts as they fight for her honor." Because, well, yeah.

Dinosaur? "Iguana with a mohawk."

"Barbeque?" He glanced over at her, then resettled again.

"Yeah, I guess we could do that. Would be fun." And it would go a ways to passing on the message he was trying to send.

He frowned again at the description of the situation with Starla. It didn't make Starla sound too good, or himself for serving that part, either.

But was it true?

He couldn't argue it, but also couldn't tarnish Starla's image like that, so he took a step back away from it, deciding to drop it all, instead.

So, leaving a glaring hole in the conversation, he went back to the clouds.

"Iguana's already have mohawks, them little spine thingies. I say it's a crocodile now, with a toupee."

"Yay barbeque! I can bake, you can handle the meat on a fire aspect? Or would you prefer the other way around?" Because she could handle meat on a fire relatively well, but it'd be a real fire, not a barbeque.

Not that fires weren't fun to have at parties too though. Hmmm.

As for Starla, well, if he wanted to hold her up as a continued paragon of virtue, that was his problem not hers. It would either fade in time as he wrapped his head around things or it would not and no other woman would ever quite compare to that shiny image.

Granted, historically, the wives of mere knights had been treated like crap in comparison to the Ladies the Knights worshiped, so, at least it would be historically accurate?

"Yeah, but that mohawk was above and beyond the natural you know?" Eh, toupee? The cloud was a little too upstanding for that! "Viking ship with a crazy figurehead now."

"I can do the grillin'. Been awhile, but I'm actually pretty good."

Open fires were fun, in the right circumstance and place. If he found out that's what Clarice wanted he might switch from barbeque to bon fire and relocate the shindig to an open space somewhere.

Starla... he might never come around to fully recognizing the whole truth of their relationship, but he was starting to bring her down from the pedestal little by little. At least as far as he'd given up that hope of having her, and now was working around to believing she wasn't the only one for him, and her opinion in the end wasn't the only one that mattered.

Having Clarice around was helping; and eventually she might take the blinders off that he'd been wearing so long.

Folding his hands on his chest, he was glad she wasn't pushing it. That's one thing he really liked about talking with her, she seemed to know when to put her shoulder into him, and when to back off and let him be.

As for the clouds, "Yeah? Well here comes a sea monster t'take it on. Looks like Nessie on steroids."

He pointed out another cloud floating in.

"Do we have a grill? Is it in the shed?" Because she had been in his backyard and she did not recall a grill like the shiny monster she'd helped with at the last barbeque! "And what kinds of things should I make that others won't think to bring?" Because that was also important!

And, well, pushing all the time was stupid. Better to bring up an idea and let people ponder it for a time sometimes!

"Nessie? Is Nessie a big long camel thing then?"

"Yeah, I got a charcoal Webber an' a propane grill. Been in storage awhile, but outta still do the job."

Thinking about food, he shrugged.

"Well I can guarantee we'll get at least two or three potato salads. Someone will likely bring a jello mold an' dip. Desserts will probably be covered, too. Might wanna make biscuits or maybe some corn bread. Baked beans, fruit or somethin'. We invite enough folks an' whatever's made will get eaten."

Nodding about the cloud, he pounted and traced out the figure.

"Yeah, it's a lake monster, got humps an' a long neck."

"So, what, we need to pull them out of mothballs and scrub them down?" The grills that was. "We can have a scrub fest, scour that old picnic table out back too. Do we need more seating? Maybe some logs?" Or would everyone sit inside? Pity, it was nice in the evenings!

Huh, well, she wouldn't pout about not making a dessert then. She could handle staples! "Beans, fruit slices, biscuits and corn bread, maybe a three day chili for those who don't want burgers? I can set that to simmer days ahead of time..." And it went well with cornbread!

"...in what lake? Is it dangerous?"

"Yeah, shouldn't be too hard. Got some foldin' chairs an' such, too. Probably borrow some from folks if we need to."

In small towns chairs kind of migrated from one event to the next.

"Chili would be good. All that sounds real good. I'll do burgers an' dogs, maybe some chicken."

Chuckling about Nessie, he shook his head.

"Nah. It's in Loch Ness, in Scotland. Just one of those stories, like Bigfoot."

"There's a log or two deeper in the woods that'll work too. I'll pop them in toward the end of the yard? See if folk want a bonfire maybe? Logs make good fire seats." That or she was an old fashioned gal?

"I'll do chili!" And they would totally have the meat aspect covered!

...

...

"I have a teammate by the name Sasquatch, we have fought a Wendigo." So asking if Nessie was real was a TOTALLY VALID THING OKAY?

"A bonfire? You tryin' to burn down my house?"

He chuckled and shook his head.

"Hell, if that's the kind of party you're lookin' for we'll have t'throw it at the lake, or borrow someone's field. Then we can do it right."

Raising an eyebrow, he looked at her.

"You gotta teammate... of course you do."

Really, how could he not have expected that.

"Huh."

"Not at all! I like your house! Small fire then, camp fire. You have a big backyard Bill!" Fire within forty feet of his house wouldn't hurt it! Poooouuuuut!

"And you brought up party. I was good with barbeque. If you want a louder coming out thing though..." She could work with that! Bigger pot of chili in the making though...

"Yep. Magic and magic based folk are also pretty common in my life Bill."

"Hey, here in the South we do a bonfire we do it right." Which means Big.

"Bonfire is definitely more of a party than a get together. I'm good with just a barbeque, though. But, uh... let's not call it a 'coming out thing', that uh, that means somethin' entirely different."

Blushing a bit.

"I wouldn't call Bigfoot or Sasquatch magic. They're more... prehistoric. Or, supernatural, if you're stretchin' it. Don't think I've ever heard of Bigfoot pullin' any rabbits out of a hat."

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